Smacked in the face with mortality

Saturday, July 20, 2013

Why is it that we have to get smacked in the face with our own mortality in order to do what we should do or live the way we should live? There are many life events that do this to us. Most recently I was hit by the sudden death of a childhood friend.

I’d lost contact with Maureen since high school graduation. During the past few years I’d tried to find her. Then all of a sudden an email arrived from our high school reunion contact list, notifying us that she was in hospice care, including the hospice house address. I quickly wrote her a letter recalling some of our childhood antics and my appreciation for the richness of those experiences with her. I offered a prayer for her to find comfort and peace.

Next thing I knew her younger sister had tracked me down through the internet and telephoned me to say how touched the family was by my letter. In the course of the conversation she reflected that, having lost her twin several years ago, and now losing her older sister she would be the only one left in the family. She had been smacked in the face with mortality. And so was I. This is the first of our childhood chums from that neighborhood to pass on to eternal life. While I’ve dealt with death and grief and loss on many occasions – a few of my own and a ton ministering to others – this one seemed to affect me in a new way.

I decided it was time to start getting rid of stuff. That decision had been part of a New Year’s resolution – to part with at least one item per day throughout the year. Maureen’s death and the five others that occurred during the same couple of weeks, served to renew that effort. I don’t need all the “stuff” that has been weighing me down for, oh so many years. While it is tempting to pass a lot of it on to my children, I realize they have more than enough stuff accumulating in their own closets. Besides, I hope what I pass on the future generations will have nothing to do with “stuff” and everything to do with qualities. With each trip to the recycling bin and each carload to Goodwill, I feel my spirit getting lighter and freer. And that feels like the beginning of eternal life. It gives me a tiny glimpse of resurrection.

Several year ago I took at class at the University of Michigan titled “Eternal Life?” taught by the world famous Dutch theological Hans Kung. Little did the university know when offering the class that the registration would soar beyond the size of any of their lecture halls. Special arrangements had to be made to find a venue large enough for all those intrigued by the question of eternal life. No matter how learned the theologian is, eternal life remains a question. But every now and then we catch a glimpse of what it may be like. There is the lightness and freedom that comes with shedding our old “stuff” – be it material or emotional.

The more we shed the stuff of the past, of entertainment, busyness, guilt and worry, self-rejection, and self-satisfaction, the deeper we are able to go into the heart of who we are as children of God. It is good to be reminded that our time on this earth is just practice for what is coming next. God is good. May we practice well those things that lead to life in the fullness of the Eternal One.